France/Gard. The twinning committees are moving forward again

This Saturday, the member committees of the Departmental Federation of Twinning Committees of the Gard gathered in Bagnols for a day of conviviality. It was an opportunity to take stock of the committees, which have been greatly affected by the health crisis.

For Alain Duplan, the president of a federation that celebrates its fortieth anniversary this year and that includes eight committees in the Gard, "the twinning committees are doing well, they are very dynamic despite the covid that made us lose some members."Thus, many European exchange projects are conducted by the various committees.

"We see twinning as meetings between old people, but it is much more than that, twinning is the exchange, the understanding of different peoples who make up Europe", underlines Alain Duplan. The fact remains that covid has caused a halt in most of these exchanges, which are gradually resuming.

And they are even growing. Pont-Saint-Esprit will soon have one more twin: after the English town of Haverhill in 1977, the German town of Egelsbach in 1991, the Portuguese town of Penacova in 1999 and the Italian town of Ovada in 2017, a fifth town from a fifth country is joining the cohort. It is Benejúzar, a small Spanish town in the province of Alicante.

"It is a town with a lot of heritage, and a secondary school, which offers a lot of potential for twinning," says the president of the twinning committee.Michel Mermet, president of the Pont-Saint-Esprit twinning committee, says that there have already been requests for exchanges between the Spanish and Spiripontan schools. The commitment between the two cities will be signed on October 18 in Spain.

This is an example of the dynamism of the twinning committees, which are nevertheless facing a difficulty: the ageing of their members. So, in partnership with the Maison de l'Europe Occitanie and the one of Nîmes, the committees and their federation are working on actions aiming at rejuvenating their members and attracting young people to twinning. The reception of young people through the European Solidarity Corps is one of the avenues explored.

Source: www.objectifgard.com